Line #33 WesternAnimation/ScaredyCat


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scaredycat.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"W-w-welcome to our new home, Sylvester."'']]
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4	''Scaredy Cat'' is a 1948 ''[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]]'' cartoon short directed by Creator/ChuckJones. It is the first in his "horror vacation" trilogy starring WesternAnimation/PorkyPig and WesternAnimation/{{Sylvester\|the Cat and Tweety Bird}}, followed by ''WesternAnimation/ClawsForAlarm'' (1954) and ''Jumpin' Jupiter'' (1955). It is notable as one of only five cartoons from the post-July 1948 Creator/WarnerBros cartoon library (which were never sold or licensed to another company) to get a Blue Ribbon reissue with its opening titles removed (although they were later restored) as well as the latest-released of the five, being the final cartoon the studio released in 1948.
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6	The cartoon begins with Porky and his pet cat Sylvester[[note]] who is named as such for the first time in this short [[/note]] arriving at their "new" home – a creepy OldDarkHouse – late at night. Porky, unfazed, prepares to settle in for a good night’s sleep, while a terrified Sylvester soon discovers there is a cult of murderous mice inhabiting the place – and planning to make its new owners their next victims.
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8	Edited into 1977's ''[[HalloweenSpecial Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special]]'', where clips from both it and ''Claws for Alarm'' were combined and re-arranged into one sequence and the events were shown as being caused by Witch Hazel as part of her Halloween trickery.
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10	----
11	!!''Scaredy Cat'' provides examples of:
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13	* {{Bowdlerization}}: Creator/CartoonNetwork and Creator/{{Boomerang}} have aired two versions of this short in the US, each with violent parts edited out:
14	** The more common version has the Blue Ribbon ''Merrie Melodies'' title card and cuts the scene where Sylvester gets a pistol from a dresser drawer and threatens to kill himself if Porky does not let him stay to protect him from the mice, along with the scene where Porky bends over to pick up a scared Sylvester and nearly misses being shot by a mouse in a black hood. This edit was also used when the short aired on Creator/{{ABC}} (as part of ''[[WesternAnimation/TheBugsBunnyRoadRunnerShow The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show]]'') and the Creator/KidsWB network.
15	** A rarely-shown dubbed version, which first aired on a 4:00 am showing of the Cartoon Network compilation show ''Bugs and Daffy'' in 2003 and again on a New Year's Day marathon of ''Looney Tunes'' cartoons on January 1, 2010, has the original title cards and credits and reinstates the scene where Porky bends over to pick up a scared Sylvester and nearly misses getting shot by a mouse in a black hood, but still edits the scene where Sylvester withdraws a pistol from a drawer and threatens to kill himself with it and fights with Porky over the gun. In contrast to the usual "dissolve-edit" version that aired frequently on Cartoon Network, the newly edited version cuts from Porky asking Sylvester to leave his bedroom to Sylvester crying and Porky chastising him for being a crybaby before relenting, and crops the shot of Porky chastising Sylvester for crying so the gun behind Porky's back is never shown. As of 2011, this version was regularly shown on both Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
16	* ColorFailure: After being lowered into the basement from the kitchen, Sylvester re-emerges nearly four hours later white with fear (and sporting a ThousandYardStare).
17	* CowardlyLion: Sylvester is one, of the housecat variety.
18	* CruelTwistEnding: After Sylvester saves Porky, the executioner mouse appears, and bludgeons Sylvester with a mallet. (Although there's plenty of room to indicate that our two main characters will be fine, as the mouse only got Sylvester, who's only knocked out, and has recovered from far worse already.)
19	* DramaticThunder: Accompanies the establishing shot of the house at the start of the cartoon.
20	* DrivenToSuicide: Averted. When Sylvester tells Porky about the killer mice having executed the previous homeowners' cat, Porky refuses to believe him, at which point Sylvester tries to kill himself by putting a gun to his head. Porky stops him and decides to let Sylvester sleep with him.
21	* FailedASpotCheck: All through the short with Porky until he finally realizes Sylvester was telling the truth about the murderous mice inhabiting the house:
22	** When he allows Sylvester to sleep with him, he doesn't notice that the mice pushed his bed out the balcony doors, causing it to land on a flagpole. After Porky tells Sylvester to close the window, Sylvester gets out of bed to do so, flinging the bed back upstairs, but instead, he closes the window for a birdhouse, only then does he realize too late that the mice threw him out the window.
23	** When Porky drags Sylvester back into the kitchen after the anvil incident, the executioner mouse pushes a bowling ball down towards them, and after Sylvester pushes Porky out of the way, the latter doesn't notice the former's bed in the kitchen lowering down into the basement. Then, as Porky drags Sylvester back into the kitchen, he doesn't notice the executioner mouse pulling a gun on him, but he dodges the bullet, believing there must be mice.
24	** After placing Sylvester in his bed, Porky doesn't notice and is almost hit by an arrow, a PendulumOfDeath rising out of the kitchen floor, and several swords and an axe and multiple knives (being impaled on the door) as he leaves the kitchen.
25	* GuardianAngel: Sylvester’s appears to him when he runs out on Porky about to be murdered execution-style. The angel chews out Sylvester for his cowardice and convinces him to go back and drive the mice out of the house. As Sylvester beats down the mice, all the angel can do after the fact is look on as the mice flee the house.
26	* HauntedHouse: a non-supernatural example.
27	* HeartBeatsOutOfChest: A variant occurs after Sylvester witnesses the killer mice carting away the cat belonging to the previous homeowners: his heart visibly pounds in his throat but only stretches it from side-to-side instead of forward.
28	* HiddenHarasser: Porky doesn't catch on to the mice trying to kill him. He just thinks Sylvester is overreacting, or worse, is the one actually trying to kill him.
29	* LateToTheRealization: As Porky prepares himself for bedtime, Sylvester hides in his suit instead of going to his bed in the kitchen. It's not until Porky changes into his pajamas and prepares to go to sleep does he realize too late Sylvester was hiding in his clothes. Porky then kicks Sylvester out of his bedroom and throws him downstairs. Cue Sylvester seeing the murderous mice carrying away the previous homeowners' cat!
30	* AMischiefOfMice: The mice residing in Porky and Sylvester's new home are vicious, heartless murderers.
31	* NothingIsScarier: We never find out what happened to Sylvester in the basement, other than the fact that it went on for nearly four hours, and it absolutely horrified him. It's all the more terrifying because of this.
32	* OffWithHisHead: Implied as we see the previous house owner’s cat being carted away by the mice, with one mouse wearing an executioner’s hood and holding an axe. We can assume this would have been Porky’s fate as well, had Sylvester not plucked up courage and returned to save the day.
33	* PendulumOfDeath: A pendulum pops out of the floor just as Porky is walking out of the kitchen after putting Sylvester in his bed.
34	* PossessionPresumesGuilt: Sylvester catches a falling [[AnvilOnHead anvil]] before it drops onto a sleeping Porky Pig. When Porky wakes up, he sees Sylvester holding the anvil above him and assumes the cat is up to no good. Justified, as Porky previously saw Sylvester's previous attempts to warn him of the killer mice as causing trouble.
35	* ReusedCharacterDesign: The mice all closely resemble [[Characters/LooneyTunesSecondaryCharacters Hubie and Bertie]] in appearance.
36	* TheRuntAtTheEnd: After Sylvester violently ejects the mice from the house, they're seen fleeing in a pack followed by one of these.
37	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Sylvester runs away after the mice capture Porky. Fortunately, his guardian angel convinces him to return, and then beat down the mice, who flee the house instead.
38	* ShoutOut: At the end of the cartoon, after [[TapOnTheHead braining Sylvester with a mallet]] from the cuckoo clock, the "executioner" mouse removes his black hood before chuckling and declaring "Pussycats is the cwaziest peoples!" The mouse's appearance (crooked teeth, a pencil mustache, crossed eyes and a [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoléon]]-style bicorne hat) is based on comedian and [[{{Newsreel}} Fox Movietone News]] narrator Lew Lehr, and the line is a variant of Lehr's own catchphrase "Monkeys is the cwaziest peoples!"
39	* TakeOurWordForIt: We never find out what Sylvester was subjected to when he was lowered down into the basement, but whatever it was, it scared him so much it turned his fur white.
40	* TalkingWithSigns: Porky goes into the kitchen to prove that Sylvester is just seeing things. He is next seen BoundAndGagged by the mice and taken away to receive the same treatment as the previous homeowners' cat, holding a sign that reads "You were right, Sylvester."
41	* TearsOfFear: After Porky takes away the gun Sylvester was about to use on himself, the latter starts crying and heaving, obviously doing a poor job of maintaining composure in spite of how scared he is. Seeing this, Porky takes grudging pity on him and agrees to let Sylvester sleep next to him in his bed.
42	* TelephonePolearm: When his guardian angel gives him the courage to go back into the house and save Porky from being decapitated by the killer mice, Sylvester grabs a tree branch to attack said mice with, but then reconsiders and takes ''the whole tree'' instead.
43	* TookALevelInBadass: After Sylvester's guardian angel inspires him to save Porky, he ''uproots a freaking tree'', and single-handedly destroys the death cult to save his master.
44	* TheVoiceless: Sylvester notably does not speak in this short (other than two plaintive meows at Porky).
45	* YouHaveToBelieveMe: The trope that drives all three shorts in the trilogy, though at least in this one, Porky finally gets it (albeit only once the mice have him completely tied up and on the way to his execution).
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Context WesternAnimation / ScaredyCat